Yahoo Movies Rotten Tomatoes faces backlash over delayed release of Justice League score
Rotten Tomatoes has taken an unusual step to work itself into the pre-release build-up for ‘Justice League’ – but the move hasn’t done down well with everyone.
While initial social media reactions to ‘Justice League’ have been mostly positive though somewhat middling, full length reviews for the Warner Bros/DC superhero team up movie from director Zack Snyder (with uncredited reshoots by Joss Whedon) will not go live until this evening.
However, Rotten Tomatoes has announced it will not be revealing the film’s score until Thursday.
Join us for the #JusticeLeague Tomatometer Reveal on the next #SeeItSkipIt only on Facebook Watch pic.twitter.com/bbCqIPkBky
— Rotten Tomatoes (@RottenTomatoes) November 13, 2017
This is far from the norm for the predominant reviews aggregator, and would seem designed to both tie into fan anticipation for ‘Justice League,’ and to build a greater sense of significance to the RT rating.
Many critics and commentators are not happy about this, and have voiced their feelings on Twitter (beware of some strong language ahead):
This is very, very worrying and sets a dangerous precedent. Rotten Tomatoes is an aggregator – this sees them buy into the misread hype around their Tomatometer and try and become an actual critical outlet themselves. https://t.co/KLytQUu8Ui
— Alex Leadbeater names don’t need to be this long.. (@ADLeadbeater) November 14, 2017
People are going to watch the movie with or without the fucking tomato score. The fact that they’ve made a big deal out of “revealing” the score only shows that they sensationalize negativity. Meanwhile, JL broke Fandango because THAT many people were buying tickets weeks ago.
— donnia (@fincherism) November 14, 2017
Looks like we have to wait an entire day after the #JusticeLeague embargo lifts to see the Rotten Tomatoes score. They are trying to promote their “meh” show, SeeIt/ScreenIt, where they will reveal the score at 12:01am on Thursday. Absolutely ridiculous & screwing fans over…. pic.twitter.com/0FnAp1P1wp
— DR Movie News (@DrMovieNews) November 14, 2017
Is it concerning that “Rotten Tomatoes Are Delaying The Reveal of Justice League’s Score” ? #JusticeLeague #rottentomatoes #DCEU #BoxOffice # pic.twitter.com/RIXSO1iiuv
— WRMP (@WideRangeMedia) November 14, 2017
rotten tomatoes running their own campaign for justice league is honestly the funniest shit you’ll ever see in the film community
— Syn ❄⛄ (@synistere) November 14, 2017
If the audience at the fan screening I went to last night is any indicator, it won’t matter what the Rotten Tomatoes score for #JusticeLeague is. Not one bit.
That being said, it’s time to finally stop giving that site and that score our attention. WE have the power, not them.
— FliteCast is ALL IN (@TheFliteCast) November 14, 2017
So I hear that rotten tomatoes is delaying the release of they’re score for justice league……sounds pretty suspect if you ask me
— Batdan89 (@danbellpj) November 14, 2017
Rotten Tomatoes is making a cheap spectacle out of #JusticeLeague score reveal. THIS IS PATHETIC! pic.twitter.com/fB2voNGd8P
— Margaret (@lady_sati) November 14, 2017
Some DC fans have suggested in the past that Rotten Tomatoes is in some way biased against DC movies, because of the low scores for ‘Man of Steel’ (55%), ‘Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice’ (27%) and ‘Suicide Squad’ (26%).
However, this is to overlook the fact the Rotten Tomatoes is not itself a critical outlet, but collates its score from reviews published by prominent outlets online. It’s also worth noting that the site is owned by Flixster Inc, which is, in turn, part-owned by Warner Bros.
In any case, the last DC movie, ‘Wonder Woman,’ is one of the highest-scoring superhero movies at Rotten Tomatoes, with 92%.
‘Justice League’ opens in cinemas on Friday, 17 November.
Read More:
Ben Affleck confirms plans to quit as Batman
Justice League’s skimpy Amazon costumes anger fans
Wonder Woman 2 moved up to November 2019
